Jenkins: Was the AIG Rescue Legal?

Never explained is why some were bailed out and some weren't.

By

Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.

Updated Feb. 1, 2013 6:40 p.m. ET

AIG is winding up an ad campaign to thank taxpayers for its bailout and note that the rescue returned a profit to the government. That's nice, but we aren't quite ready to wash our hands of the matter.

One reason for dwelling on the AIG bailout is that we may not be done with bailouts. In the next emergency, government is likely to behave arbitrarily in dealing with private parties who come seeking rescues—or whom government feels compelled to rescue against their will. Our accumulation of precedents in this regard rests...